Thursday, 25 August 2011

France Day 8 - 15/08

An absolutely awesome day as we had booked to do a 2 hour (10km) kayak down the river where we were staying getting brilliant views of the local birds. We all went in single kayaks and I quickly left the others behind as I got into my stroke rhythm and the first birds I saw were a small flock of Common Terns fishing right next to the kayak giving great views. Further downriver another party of terns approached me however the calls were different and they turned out to be my fourth species for the trip, Little Terns. Like my previous trips to the river there were plenty of Common Sandpipers and Little Egrets around the banks and sandy areas however I also managed to add Little Ringed Plover to the list when I spotted one on one of the shingle beaches. There were some large flocks of Lapwings in the area, just as I reached the bridge they all took off and looking up I spotted an Osprey circling right above me, magic! Towards the end of the stretch we were on a female Goosdaner took off from right next to me and headed off downriver allowing me to see all the ID features, which looking in the book later on was a good thing because apparently it is quite a rare sighting for the area in summer. The final sighting of the morning was another Osprey fishing in the same area as I saw 2 a few days previous.

Back at the caravan I spotted a bird scurrying up one of the oak trees but to my surprise it wasn't a Nuthatch it was a Short Toed Treecreeper, my first ever. Then during the night I heard a couple of Tawny Owls around the site although I failed to locate them.